The Role of Nonprofits in PropTech Innovation: An Interview with Matt Knight, Seed Investor at Proplex

In this episode, host Matt Barnes sat down with Matt Knight, an investor specializing in early-stage technology and the founder of PropTech Angel Group. Together, they discuss the role of nonprofits in PropTech innovation, mental health support, and committing to a sustainable work-life balance. 

Matt Knight is an investor specializing in early-stage technology and the founder of PropTech Angel Group, the “world’s largest group of investors, entrepreneurs and tech nerds who invest in early-stage tech companies exclusively in the PropTech space.” Matt is a seed investor for Propex, Moved, Zensors, and an investor in ICON3D and Amenify. In addition, he is a Venture Partner at NextGen Venture Partners and earned his BA in Economics from Davidson College.

Finding the right balance

Building products and solving problems in the proptech world is all about a Goldilocks approach: it’s got to be just right. Matt says he aims to find the right balance, ensuring that the final result sits in the sweet spot between a problem that needs to be solved and something that donors will be excited about and willing to fund. 

Even if a donor doesn’t get particularly excited about a new development, that development should be pursued nonetheless:

“There's some that may or may not make sense for specific donors that we think need to be done either way. So that's sort of the balance that I have to walk—something might need to be done, but there might not be a donor profile that will fall over themselves and write me checks.”

In an ideal world, the usual procedure of project-based or directed giving (the usual approach) would be changed to undirected giving. Nonprofits could use their expertise without having to focus on specific issues that may only suit the donor.

One way around this traditional approach is by building and maintaining trust with donors. Matt highlights the need for donors to have faith in nonprofits that they are finding the problems that need to be solved. Efficiency and results are two ways of building this trust. Even if there aren’t the perfect metrics to display success, Matt says it’s still possible to balance the product catalog and quantifiable outcomes.

Finding donors

Here’s the thing: most proptech organizations rely on government grants or donations for companies. There’s nothing wrong with this approach, but Matt has chosen to find donors from his industry. Firstly, the benefit of this is that funding from the government or large companies might not always be available. Secondly, Matt says that, when speaking to people from the industry, he doesn’t have to “explain what proptech is or why mental health matters or why innovations and materials could change the planet”—they already know.

Matt describes this streamlined process, saying: 

“We started with sort of the lower hanging fruit, so to speak, versus going to the Rockefeller Foundation and talking on how much real estate they own and how we could help them. We haven't really approached them yet because those are the people we touch most frequently.”

Matt says that when approaching donors from the proptech industry, it’s important to focus more on the personal side, rather than the business side. If people empathize on a human level with the problems that Matt and his team are trying to fix, then they are more likely to donate. He also ensures a more collaborative relationship where donors are listened to throughout the process, and their issues can be addressed during development, rather than just at the beginning and end of the process. 

By actively listening to donors' concerns and requests, his organization commits to addressing them through their initiatives. This dialog cultivates more regular donors. Matt says that his viewpoint is: 

Well, I built the thing you asked me to build. Here's my donation link, right? I’ve built what you said you wanted. I don't want to say it’s holding people accountable, but we went and spent time and effort to build it. Here are  our early results. We'd love for you to consider donating to us on a regular basis.

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Listen to this episode of the Nonprofit Connect podcast to hear the rest of Howard’s insights into the younger generation’s views on social causes!